CEDH · CASELAW;CLIN;ENG — 6 novembre 2008

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .sEB86A30B { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; page-break-after:avoid } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sA241FE93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:18pt; text-align:justify; page-break-after:avoid; border-bottom:0.75pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s8F2B0B1B { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12pt } .s9FF10068 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:12pt } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s5F48796F { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .s5CB9E8AB { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; border-bottom:1pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .sDF790F1E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 113 November 2008 Gulub Atanasov v. Bulgaria - 73281/01 Judgment 6.11.2008 [Section V] Article 5 Article 5-1 Lawful arrest or detention Transfer to a psychiatric hospital of a person under house arrest without the requisite court order: violation   Facts : In 1999 the applicant, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of robbery and murder. By a court order of 6 July 2000 he was placed under house arrest owing to health problems that required surgery. Subsequently, the investigator responsible for the applicant's case ordered that he be placed in a psychiatric hospital from 8 August to 4 September 2000 with a view to conducting a fresh expert examination. In the ensuing expert report, eight out of eleven experts concluded that despite his mental illness the applicant had been of sound mind at all relevant times. The criminal proceedings against the applicant were eventually discontinued following his death in 2006. Law : Article 5   §   1 – The applicant complained in substance that the 26 days he had spent in the psychiatric hospital had been based on an unlawful transfer order issued by the investigator rather than a court. At the outset, the Court was called upon to determine whether the alleged unlawfulness of the transfer order was solely relevant to the location, regime or conditions of the applicant's deprivation of liberty or whether it had had repercussions on the conformity with the requirements of Article 5. Despite the fact that the applicant's legal situation had remained unchanged, in practice the degree and nature of the restrictions on his liberty while in the psychiatric hospital must have been very different from those associated with house arrest. The Court therefore considered it appropriate to examine whether his transfer to and from the hospital had been ordered in conformity with domestic law. In this connection, it was established that under the Bulgarian Code of Criminal Procedure such transfers required a court order, which had never been made in the applicant's case so that the applicant's transfer from house arrest to the psychiatric hospital had been unlawful. Conclusion : violation (unanimously). The Court further found violations of Article 5   §§   4 and 5 and no violation of Article 5   §   3 of the Convention. Article 41 – EUR 2,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage.   © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court. Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes